1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a gas turbine engine, and more specifically to a turbine blade formed from a spar and shell.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed under 37CFR 1.97 and 1.98
In a gas turbine engine, a compressed air from a compressor is burned with a fuel in a combustor to produce a hot gas flow. The hot gas flow is passed through a multiple stage turbine to convert most of the energy from the gal flow into mechanical work to drive the compressor, and in the case of an aero engine to drive a fan, and in the case of an industrial gas turbine (IGT) engine to drive an electric generator to produce electrical power.
The efficiency of the engine can be increased by passing a higher temperature gas into the turbine, or a higher turbine inlet temperature. However, the maximum turbine inlet temperature will depend upon the material properties of the first stage turbine stator vanes and rotor blades, since these airfoils are exposed to the highest gas flow temperature. Modern engine has a turbine inlet temperature around 2,400 degrees F., which is much higher than the melting point of a typical modern vane or blade. These airfoils can be used under these high temperature conditions due to airfoil cooling using a mixture of convection cooling along with impingement cooling and film cooling of the internal and the external surfaces of these airfoils.
A few very high temperature materials exist that have melting points well above modern engine turbine inlet temperatures. Columbian has a melt temperature of up to 4,440 F; TZM Moly up to 4,750 F; hot pressed silicon nitride up to 3,500 F; Tantalum up to 5,400 F; and Tungsten up to 6,150 F these materials would allow for higher turbine inlet temperatures. However, these materials cannot be cast or machined to form turbine airfoils.
On prior art method of forming a turbine airfoil from one of these exotic high temperature materials is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,080,971 B2 issued to Wilson et al on Jul. 25, 2006 and entitled COOLED TURBINE SPAR SHELL BLADE
CONSTRUCTION, the entire disclosure being incorporated herein by reference. The shell is formed from a wire EDM process to form a thin walled airfoil shell, and the shell is held in compression between a spar tip and the blade platform or root section. The shell can take the higher gas flow temperatures, and the spar provides internal cooling for the airfoil walls.
It is well recognized that forming a steel wire with a long length/diameter ratio will improve its tensile strength compared to a standard forging. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are allotropes of carbon. This results in a nanostructure where the length/diameter ratio exceeds 1,000,000. Such cylindrical carbon molecules have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials science. CNTs exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat. Inorganic nanotubes have also been synthesized.
All nanotubes are expected to be very good thermal conductors along the tube, exhibiting a property known as ballistic conduction, but good insulators laterally to the tube axis. It is predicted that carbon nanotubes will be able to transmit up to 6,000 watts per meter per degree Kelvin at room temperature compared to copper—a metal well known for its good thermal conductivity—which only transmits 385 W/(m*K). The temperature stability of carbon nanotubes is estimated to be up to 2,800 degrees Celsius in vacuum and about 750 degrees Celsius in air.